Trump's Final Push to Lock Down the Senate Could Have the Opposite Effect

[babylonsister]

Trump’s Final Push to Lock Down the Senate Could Have the Opposite Effect
A bunch of his stops are in college towns, and ones full of in-state students who overwhelmingly will be registered to vote in the very Senate races Republicans are targeting.
Liz Mair
10.30.18 4:11 AM ET


With just a week until Election Day, President Trump has firmed up his immediate pre-election travel plans, and on first glance it looks like he’s playing it smart and safe, for once in his political life.

With high approval ratings among Republicans but still-weak favorability among the electorate at-large, and the House more likely to flip than the Senate, he’ll be focusing a lot of his attention on states he won in 2016 where Democratic senators are on the ballot: Florida, Missouri, West Virginia, Indiana, Montana, Ohio. Cook Political Report’s Amy Walter is dubbing it a “very strategically smart tour” that is “all about… really expanding the Senate.”

But look a little closer, and you’ll see the itinerary actually hints at Republican weaknesses that really shouldn’t even be present—and a tour that might just wind up helping, not hurting, Democrats.

Let’s be honest: There’s very little obvious reason why states that Trump won by massive margins—like Indiana, Missouri, Montana and West Virginia—should still be in play for Democrats at all, especially after the Kavanaugh nomination, which unified various chunks of the GOP in a way nothing prior had during Trump’s tenure.

That they are still being heavily contested speaks to the fact that the GOP in the era of Trump really isn’t that saleable to most voters— even those in areas that overwhelmingly decided in 2016 that he was the better of two bad choices.

Sure, it also speaks to the fact that some unique, very well-tailored-to-their-states, or just plain lucky-as-a-magic-horseshoe senators currently occupy those seats (Joe Manchin falls in the former category, Claire McCaskill in the latter).

But fundamentally, that the GOP is a week away from the election and apparently has these races so insufficiently locked down that Trump has to go on the road to gin up and turn out the base is no good indicator for the GOP overall.

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https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-final-push-to-lock-down-the-senate-could-have-the-opposite-effect?ref=home

[beachbum bob]

1. Trump and GOP not adding any new voters to their base while it's the

opposite for democrats. The sleeping apathetic typical sit on their ass democratic voter is now MAD. They are motivated and they are and will vote